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Rice bought the parcel at the southeast corner of Wheeler and San Jacinto last May, as it turns out. The PPS Pacesetter location at that site is now closed.

You can tell something is different about Wheeler/59. Can't tell if its COVID-related or if its the fact that Rice shut down PPS, everything is fenced up outside of the Jack-in-the-box, and Fiesta brought back the constable but there isn't as much panhandling and stuff in that area. Its weird, cause now in the mornings the pedestrian traffic is moreso the people coming from or going to Wheeler station. I even saw joggers running past jack in the box yesterday. If this is a sign of whats to come, what a crazy change. Midtown just reclaimed 1/12 of its land back.

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The silver lining of this Covid-19 chaos is that construction crews are less obstructed by traffic, and their ability to work around the clock has sped up construction big time on this bad boy. I drove by the other day and damn, you can only imagine. The ION being the central building is going to be incredible for us as a city. And to see that old mechanic shop torn down finally to make way for the parking garage was so nice to see. I'm even excited about the parking garage because the design doesn't waste retail potential.

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Houston's innovation ecosystem is only going to succeed if it's propelled forward by founder and startup teams, rather than government, academia, and individuals that don't understand what it really takes to build a technology.

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Its possible like most CEO changes that this person was the right one to get the job started, and now they need a different CEO to actually get it running. If it was a resignation for a particular issue or reason I'm sure the media would come right out and say it. Looks like its just a changing of the guard, in my opinion.

Houston innovation hub leader shares details on recent resignation

Gabriella Rowe has stepped down from her role as executive director of The Ion.Courtesy of Station Houston

A Houston tech ecosystem leader has announced her resignation from her position in order to seek out a new role.

Gabriella Rowe, who served The Ion as executive director until earlier this week, has confirmed she has resigned from her position. The Ion is Rice Management Company's innovation center rising in Midtown, and Rowe was named executive director inOctober of last year. She was previously the CEO of Station Houston since August 2018, whichwas later mergedwith Austin-based Capital Factory.

Rowe, who was selected for Mayor Sylvester Turner's new Health Equity Response task force that was established to help the city respond to COVID-19, says she hasn't yet announced what her next move is, but she tells InnovationMap will continue focusing on technology and equity.

"I am stepping back from the Ion role in order to focus my time exclusively with the issues of equity and access in growing our tech ecosystem and economy," Rowe says, "because I think that is going to be an instrumental part of the recovery of Houston moving forward."

While Rowe will have no official role at The Ion moving forward, she imagines her to-be-announced opportunity will work hand-in-hand with the mission of The Ion, which is expected to deliver next year.

"The Ion is going to be an incredibly successful project that is going to have all the positive effect on the long term future of Houston that it is designed to do. I feel confident that it's set up to do that and has the people in place to carry it forward," she says.

Rowe says her foray into Houston's tech ecosystem began when she was head of school of The Village School in West Houston. Now, her driving factor is creating a city where those students could grow their tech education and skills and have plenty of care opportunities in Houston.

"From the very start, this has been for me about building a tech ecosystem in Houston that can support the development of the tech economy that would give our Houston talent an opportunity to stay here in this city and partake in this global opportunity," she says

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Sounds like she took the Ion to where it needed to be, set up the connections and all that jazz, saw a need in the market that wasn't being met, and jumped to work in that space. Pretty understandable, and doing work in making the tech industry more equitable and easier to access is a monumental job that even SF companies haven't figured out yet. So shoutout to her for taking on that task. It makes sense for Houston, tbh, to want to take a bit of a more homegrown angle towards building a tech sector. You have all these immigrants and their kids from countries where US companies are hiring from to bring their engineers here, why not target those kids who are already here and other kids stuck in schools that don't offer this kind of training to help them code at a much earlier age. Set up programs to promote women in tech. Provide grants to those looking to switch careers at 25-40. Etc. If done well, and in conjunction with the Ion, they could have the types of programs that everyone would want to get into.

Although, when she says she may work with the Ion in the future, I feel like most tech in Houston will, given the size and footprint of the programs and development.